Mentor materials
Adapting teaching
Select a development area
Consider the development areas for this topic (below). Then make a note of the area you plan to zoom in on and when you plan to visit so you can observe your teacher in this area. Familiarise yourself with the focused development areas. You will select one later when you observe your teacher.
Development area 1: Planning to adapt teaching
Focused development area
- Teacher, with the support of a colleague, pre-empts what pupils are likely to find challenging in the material they are teaching and plans how they might adapt their teaching to support all pupils to reach the learning goals, e.g. by providing additional time to practise or worked examples.
- Teacher plans how to adapt their teaching to stretch pupils’ thinking when they become increasingly successful, e.g. by removing unnecessary exposition, scaffolding or using stretch questions.
- Teacher, with the support of a colleague, a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) or special education professionals, seeks to understand the needs of all pupils, including individual pupils’ needs, and how they might best adapt their teaching to support all pupils to meet learning goals without creating an excessive workload.
- Teacher, with the support of a colleague, discusses when it is appropriate to intervene with individuals and small groups rather than the whole class and plans how to do this efficiently and effectively.
Example precise target: Teacher, with the support of a colleague, pre-empts what pupils are likely to find challenging in the material they are teaching and plans how they might adapt their teaching to support all pupils to reach the learning goals, e
g. by providing additional time to practise or worked examples.
- Not doing it at all: With the support of a colleague, discuss what pupils are likely to find challenging about the material you are teaching, in what ways they may find it challenging and how you might adapt your instruction to support pupils if they do find it challenging, e.g. by breaking down an explanation.
- Doing it but needs some improvement: Plan additional support for when pupils struggle to understand challenging concepts, e.g. plan additional examples and non-examples to explain the concept.
- Doing it well and needs some stretch: Plan additional support for when pupils struggle to understand challenging concepts and processes, e.g. plan additional examples and non-examples and plan to scaffold a process further by taking pupils through a worked example.
Development area 2: Understanding what pupils know
Focused development area
- Teacher plans to check for understanding of the knowledge, skills and concepts they need pupils to have secured and especially focuses on those they think pupils may find challenging, e.g. by using questions that target common misconceptions about the material.
- Teacher reframes or asks additional questions to understand where pupils’ wrong answers stem from, e.g. whether they have misunderstood the question, have made a careless error, have a gap in their knowledge or a misconception.
- Teacher checks for understanding continuously as they model a process to determine when pupils are ready to take over and do parts or all of the process with less support.
Development area 3: Adapting teaching
Focused development area
- Teacher gradually hands over the process they are modelling to pupils as pupils’ knowledge becomes more secure, e.g. by asking pupils more questions so they are gradually doing more of the process themselves.
- Teacher provides additional support for pupils when they show they are struggling to understand or recall knowledge, skills and concepts, e.g. by further breaking down material, giving further examples or providing a worked example.
Observe
Consider the following questions based on a short (approximately 15 minute) observation of your teacher.
What was your teacher’s previous target? Are they meeting it? How do you know?
Thinking about the development area you have selected for this topic, what is your teacher already doing well in this area? Which focused development area best aligns with what your teacher needs to get better at? What one precise target (bite-sized action) might you work with them on during your mentor meeting?
Reminder: You can choose to stick with this previous target if they have not made enough progress. When moving on to a new precise target, you can select one from the table above or, if this doesn’t fit your teacher’s needs, you can write your own.
How will you model the target to your teacher to show them what good looks like? What questions will you ask to check your teacher understands the model? For example, ‘How it is different from your current practice?’ and ‘What impact might it have on your practice and pupils?’
Reminder: Your model should help your teacher develop their ability in some of the following:
- Adapt lessons, while maintaining high expectations for all, so that all pupils have the opportunity to meet expectations.
- Reframe questions to provide greater scaffolding or greater stretch.
- Monitor pupil work during lessons, including checking for misconceptions.
- Build in additional practice or remove unnecessary expositions.
- Consider carefully whether intervening within lessons with individuals and small groups would be more efficient and effective than planning different lessons for different groups of pupils.
Next, meet with your teacher to work through the ‘feedback’ stage of instructional coaching.